CEMA Internet of Things market to ‘soar’ in 2015: IDC

The Internet of Things (IoT) market in Central and Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (CEMA) region, although "still nascent", is growing rapidly and holds "considerable potential for the rest of the decade", according to International Data Corporation.

In 2015, IDC expects the IoT market in CEMA to "soar", recording double-digit growth and ushering in a range of benefits for consumers and businesses, such as fresh technologies and enhancements to business processes.

IDC projected the market's value to exceed $50bn by 2018, 2bn devices or "things" will be connected to networks across CEMA.

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But different industry sectors will adopt IoT solutions at varying rates, IDC said, with healthcare leading the charge. Manufacturing will also be a major adopter, particularly in the automotive sector, where Vehicle-to-Vehicle (V2V) and Vehicle-to-Infrastructure (V2I) communication will become increasingly common.

But IDC predicted that telecoms companies in CEMA would "struggle with the complexity of M2M [machine-to-machine]" solutions.

IDC added that security is expected to be "the top concern" of organisations deploying IoT solutions, and would drive a growth in opportunities for security solutions vendors.

"While the Internet of Things market in CEMA is still in its early stages, growth momentum has already picked up," said Milan Kalal, senior research analyst with IDC CEMA. "However, the development of this market will not be consistent across all industry sectors. Those that have already implemented IoT or have plans to do so, [such as] manufacturing, transportation, and healthcare entities, will record the most immediate growth."